Plan to cut legislature size rejected

February 10, 2009

PIERRE - A plan to cut the size of the South Dakota Legislature was rejected Monday by a legislative panel. The bill's main sponsor, Rep. Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, said it would make sense to cut the number of people in the House and Senate to reduce overall spending by the Legislature. That would allow the Legislature to share in the pain as state programs are cut to balance the budget, he said. The House State Affairs Committee voted 10-3 to kill HB1187, which would have changed the Legislature from the current 35 districts to 25 districts. That would have trimmed the number of senators from 35 to 25 and would have cut the number of House members from 70 to 50. Each legislative district has one senator and two representatives. The measure would reduce the Legislature's budget by about 7 percent, or $340,000 a year, Greenfield said. By The Associated Press